Radiation curable coating for photographic laminate, and development process

Unexposed photographic color print material comprising a laminate of a photoemulsion layer having front and back sides and an optically clear coating layer having front and back sides, wherein:

• A. said photoemulsion layer is adapted to be exposed to the image of a color print negative projected through said coating layer, developed by an immersion devleopment process, and viewed through said coating layer following said development process;
• B. the front side of said coating layer is the front outside surface of said color print material, and is adapted to be in contact with immersion development process chemicals during development of said print material;
• C. the back side of said coating layer faces the front side of said photoemulsion layer;
• D. said coating layer has the property of being essentially non-yellowing during and after immersion of said color print material in immersion development process chemicals with said coating layer in direct contact with said chemicals;
• and
• E. said coating layer consists essentially of the cured reaction product of:
• (i) from 45 to 90 weight percent, based upon total composition weight, of an oilgomer of th.RTM.formula:
• ##STR12## wherein R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 are independently selected from linear, branched, or cyclic saturated alkylene radicals including from six to twenty carbon atoms,
• n is a whole number from zero to three,
• Q and X are independently selected from:
• (a) radicals of the formula ##STR13## wherein R.sup.3, R.sup.4, and R.sup.5 are independently selected from hydrogen, methyl, ethyl, or propyl, m is an integer of from 1 to 10, and p is zero or one, and
• (b) a saturated alkyl radical of from nine to twenty carbon atoms,
• with the proviso that said oligomer must possess at least one acrylate or methacrylate group;
• (ii) from 9 to 50 weight percent, based upon total composition weight, of a reactive diluent selected from the group consisting of lauryl acrylate, lauryl methacrylate, stearyl acrylate, stearyl methacrylate, ethylhexylacrylate, isodecyl acrylate, and mixtures thereof;
• and
• (iii) from 0.5 to 5 weight percent, based upon the total composition weight, of a photoinitiator selected from the group consisting of 2-hydroxycyclohexylphenone, 2-hydroxy-2-methyl-1-phenyl-propan-1-one, and diethoxyacetophenone.